Accident victims who have sustained serious injury usually must be transported to a medical facility to receive appropriate treatment. However, many injuries can be made worse if the victim is moved improperly. Therefore before moving an accident victim one usually attempts to immobilize the injured body parts. This is often done using various types of rigid splints pressed against the body with straps or other restraining devices. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,218 to Kendrick. This patent shows a jacket-like device used to support the head, neck and back so the accident victim can be moved while restraining spinal movement. However, such immobilizing devices can be somewhat difficult to place on an accident victim without gross movements of the victim. Further, standard splint-type restraining devices using straps tend to squeeze the victim's body to in effect use the body as a structural element adding rigidity to the combination of the restraining device and the body part. This can cause further complications depending upon the type and extent of injury. Also, splints are often configured for use with specific body parts so many types must be carried by emergency first aid crews.
Another structure which could be used as a temporary splint is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,212,497 to Dickinson. This type of temporary splint uses a non-porous outer bag and a porous inner bag containing a mass of discrete particles. After being fitted to the injured body part, the outer bag is evacuated to allow the external atmospheric pressure to force the discrete particles against one another to form a rigid mass. The temporary splint is thus locked into the configuration, such as surrounding a patient's arm, it was in before the vacuum was applied to the outer bag. Although this type of temporary splint can be used with different body parts, it may tend to squeeze the patient when the vacuum is drawn. Also, the maximum pressure available for rigidifying the mass of discrete particles is atmospheric pressure; therefore such a splint may not be suitable when significant structural support is needed, such as when supporting an accident victim's head, neck and back. Also, vacuum actuated splints require the use of a vacuum pump, which are often not readily available.
Therefore, what has been missing in the prior art is a temporary splint which can be used to immobilize different body parts and which is strong enough to immobilize a patient's head, neck and back without squeezing the patient.